As chairman of the House Republican Health Care Solutions Group, Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Springfield [MO], knows a thing or two about health care. But some of what he knows just isn’t true.

“I’m 59,” Mr. Blunt said last week during a meeting with Post-Dispatch reporters and editors. “In either Canada or Great Britain, if I broke my hip, I couldn’t get it replaced.”

We fact-checked that. At least 63 percent of hip replacements performed in Canada last year and two-thirds of those done in England were on patients age 65 or older. More than 1,200 in Canada were done on people older than 85.

“I didn’t just pull that number out of thin air,” Mr. Blunt said in a subsequent interview. It came, he said, from testimony before the House Subcommittee on Health by “some people who are supposed to be experts on Canadian health care.”

“I had been given that example. I was told that 59 is the cutoff,” he said. “I’m glad you pointed that out to me. I won’t use that example any more.”

…snip…

[…] he’s not the only Republican leader who has his facts wrong about British and Canadian health care. And some of his colleagues are a bit less contrite.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, recently claimed that in England, Sen. Ted Kennedy would have been denied treatment for his brain cancer.

The English National Health Service says that’s not true. The head of a related health agency complained about “untrue or misinformed” comments. And the president of the British Medical Association decried such “jaw-droppingly untruthful attacks.”
It shouldn’t matter. None of the health reform plans being considered by Congress would create an English- or Canadian-style health system here. But opponents of reform sometimes are careless with the facts about U.S. health care, too.

For example, Mr. Blunt was asked how long an uninsured American would wait for a hip replacement.

“If they go to the emergency room, I think they can get that done,” he said. Emergency rooms don’t do hip replacements, which require both hospital care and weeks of rehabilitation. They do emergency surgery, necessary to save a life.

Seriously, kids, is there anyone among us who really thinks that you can get a hip replacement in the E.R.? Has this idiot ever been in an Emergency Room? Has he never watched a medical drama on TV?

In the same interview, Mr. Blunt minimized the number of people without health insurance — in part by maximizing the number who are illegal immigrants.

“Ten to 12 million of them are in the country illegally. Everyone sort of agrees on that,” Mr. Blunt said. It’s a common refrain by opponents of reform.

In fact, the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation puts the number of uninsured who are immigrants — both legal and illegal — at about 9 million.

The National Institute for Health Care Management, another nonpartisan group, estimates that about 5.6 million illegal immigrants are among the 45.7 million people who were uninsured in 2007.

…snip…

Mr. Blunt says his figure, which he later lowered to “about 8 million” is based on a Congressional Budget Office estimate.

Alas, that’s not exactly what the CBO document says. It says 17 million people in America still would be uninsured 10 years from now if the House health reform bill is approved. About half of those people would be illegal immigrants. It also says that 37 million who would otherwise be uninsured would have insurance coverage under the House plan.

Health policy is complicated, no doubt about it. Not everyone understands it. But everyone, particularly responsible political leaders, at least should try to get the facts straight.

(If any of you kids were observant enough to notice that the woman on the newspaper at the bottom has been replaced but can’t figure out who the replacement is, it’s Michele Batshit Bachmann. Just because.)

I know Roy Blunt, Roy Blunt is no friend of mine, but he sure is a liar…lol

Yes, yes he is…and the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, he probably learned all he knows about health care from his worthless son Matt, the former failed Governor of Missouri or it could be Roy learned from his wife..that would be his 2nd wife, his first wife he dumped after getting caught with his pants down cheating with the lobbyist who is now # 2.

Yes, he is.. against Robin Carnahan… she will be the Democratic candidate..not sure if he will have a challenger for the primary. There have been a couple of people who have talked about it.. but who knows.. Robin has great state wide appeal and her name is going to carry her, plus people love her.. she has been the Sec of State and is very popular… daughter of a very popular Governor, man who ran for senator, and was elected, even though dead..(remember Ashcroft lost to him), and Jean his wife, Robin’s mother filled the seat. She wasn’t a strong enough candidate to carry it in re-election though.. But Robin is… After what Baby Blunt did in the state, Daddy isn’t going to do too well, I don’t believe..even the Rs don’t care much for him…lol

all any opponent has to do is point out that he is sooooo out of touch, that he doesn’t even know you can’t get a hip replacement in an emergency room! and he’s the chairman of the rethug health care solutions group? :shock: he’s a buffoon!

i think all the family values rethugs who have gotten caught with their mistresses should be on a reality show. they’ll be locked in a house together, along with the mistresses and their wives or ex-wives.

i love when they pull that crap. as a member of congress making laws that will affect everyone, don’t you think it would be nice if he made sure his “expert” sources really are experts? silly me! :oops: i forgot that “expert” means someone who will say exactly what the congresscritter wants to hear.

No Republican can cite any credible source of information because, if they did, it would run counter to the bullshit that they are trying to shell out to the general, uninformed public. That’s how they get away with everything. No scientific evidence, no real credible sources such as the AMA, APA, etc. Just a bunch of cronies who pull their data from the Family Research Council, Regent University and Concerned Women for America while drinking scotch and, apparently fornicating at the C Street “retreat” and then spouting their religionized version of reality in their prepaid speeches.

The trouble with Obama and the rest of the Democrats is their utter inability to use the word LIAR.
Obama keeps talking to Americans like he’s lecturing a class filled with grad students.
I think 8 years of Bush have proven that most Americans require simple declarative sentences, like, “Sarah Palin said there’d be death panels. She’s a liar!”
“Roy Blunt lied about Canadian health care. He’s a liar!”
“The Republicans say they are for health care reform, but they aren’t. They are liars!”

Diane Rhem on NPR had a good discussion about this a couple years ago. She was very frustrated with a couple media analysts who kept referring to “misstatements” and “inaccurate claims.” She demanded to know why they wouldn’t just call them “lies.”

people appreciate when other people say what what they mean without the layers of bs. it’s a shame that the talking heads and the pols have no idea how people think outside the bubble. ooh! from now on, i am going to call those out-of-touch pols and media morons bubbleheads!

exactly! i don’t know why so many dems choose to be polite when the rethugs are calling them every name in the book–socialists, communists, fascists, murderers of old people! there are a few who dare to say the truth (was that a thing of beauty when hillary said that jebby helped chimpy steal the election? :lol: ), but the ones that do rarely get any screen time.

howard dean, lawrence o’donnell, carville, and begala need to start making the rounds and calling out the liars when they see them.

LOL, you were so polite… you are sweet, nonnie. It’s just Carl Johnson – a pathetic man in his 50’s with nothing else to do but go down my blogroll misprepresenting me. He’s been at these shennanigans for years. He’s a stalker and has even been reported to the police and his IP. He flips out whenever I turn on comment moderation OR when the democrats are about to win something.

oh, i get it. so you must be this little asshole, carl johnson, who’s such a weasel that you can’t even criticize under your own name. i should have known it wasn’t really helen, as she would know how to spell compliment. go away, asshole.